rolling thread of stuff worth reading on videogames

This came back - I'll actually grab it this time:
https://storybundle.com/games
Less than a day to go

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/is-simcity-homelessness-a-bug-or-a-feature

(via Trayce)

Great read - thanks!

now i want to read that guy's book

http://www.fastcompany.com/3040889/the-untold-story-of-the-invention-of-the-game-cartridge

vice article reminds me of how in simcity 2000 people would recommend demolishing all churches because people can't live in them

That cartridge history article was great. Never seen the Channel F before and I thought I was pretty up on these things! Boggling to think of paying $169 in 1977 dollars - over six hundred dollars today - for the system.

Last day or so for Storybundle Video Game Bundle V
http://storybundle.com/games

I've been wanting to read A Mind Forever Voyaging for some time now. Guess I'll spring for Tier 2 too.

have you played the game it's named after? one of my alltime faves.

never played it, but sounds interesting!

play it before we do the new alltime gaming poll so you can vote for it

heh. i don't know if I have the stones to do IF anymore, tbh...

http://www.thenation.com/article/197849/videogame-yanis-varoufakis-used-study-eurozone

It began with an email. “I have been following your blog for a while,” wrote Gabe Newell, president of the videogame developer Valve, in October 2013. “Here at my company we were discussing an issue of linking economies in two virtual environments (creating a shared currency), and wrestling with some of the thornier problems of balance of payments, when it occurred to me ‘this is Germany and Greece’ . . . . Rather than continuing to run an emulator of you in my head, I thought I’d check to see if we couldn’t get the real you interested in what we are doing.”

nerrrrrrrd

guilty

lol. key question is, how often do you run emulators of other ppl in your head?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/03/03/minecraft-markus-persson-life-after-microsoft-sale/

THESE DAYS Persson pays less attention to the heckling on Twitter and more to the insults hurled his way by close friends on a WhatsApp group they’ve crudely titled Farts. The unleashed Persson has regressed toward adolescence. At the temporary office for Rubberbrain, jokes about male genitalia and laughter bounce off the ceiling and elicit annoyed floor banging from the upstairs neighbor.

Persson ignores the foot-thumped berating much like he’s done with the armchair trolls. He says he’s taken fondly to the mute button on Twitter, which allows him to tune out unkind people without notifying them that they’ve been blocked. Occasionally, though, his curiosity will get the best of him, and he’ll reply. Lately he’s been responding to his haters with a moving image from the movie Zombieland of Woody Harrelson wiping tears away with a wad of money. “I’m aware that tweeting the image is a little douchey,” he shrugs. He’s equally gauche with people he likes, broadcasting his vacations via chartered jet on Snapchat. As for girls, “I tried to use Tinder, it didn’t work. In Sweden it’s horrible; there’s only like four people.” Hence the $180,000 nightclub bills.

Offworld is back and it's Leigh Alexander's now
http://offworld.com/

visuals are pretty unfortunate; writing is interesting tho

Does Laura still hang out here? I don't know what anyone's called any more.

This feels huge to me in terms of what it could inspire going forward and the completely fresh perspective it brings.
New African brawler/fantasy rpg from a Cameroonian studio has just been greenlit on steam.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/aurion/
http://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/166/165049/auto/10582932_903941302953687_5558424645125961737_o.jpg
http://kiroogames.com/en/en/kiro-o-tales.html
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386449558

good article on fighting games, I can definitely relate
http://boingboing.net/2015/03/31/the-existential-dread-of-fight.html

maddy myers is great

first thing i've read of hers, i'll look her work up

Another Story Bundle that I'll never get around to reading.
A whole book on Bible Adventures?
https://storybundle.com/games

Ex-ILG-mod Laura Hudson writes a wonder excoriation of the sequel to "Ready Player One:"

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/07/armada_by_ernest_cline_follow_up_to_ready_player_one_reviewed.single.html

Armada often feels like it's being narrated by that one guy in your group of friends who never stops quoting the Simpsons, a tic that feels increasingly tiresome and off-putting in the face of the novel’s supposedly apocalyptic stakes. On more than one occasion, soldiers salute each other en route to world-ending battles by solemnly swearing that “the Force” will be with them, and one character flies to his supposedly tragic and moving death while screaming quotes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is a book that ends with someone unironically quoting Yoda.

too nice imo

wow that sounds baaaaaaaaad

Indeed, after Zack blasts off to join the Earth Defense Alliance, he explains how he feels again and again not by telling us, but by referencing the experiences of main characters from better versions of this story: “I felt like Luke Skywalker surveying a hangar full of A-, Y- and X-Wing Fighters just before the Battle of Yavin. Or Captain Apollo, climbing into the cockpit of his Viper on the Galactica’s flight deck. Ender Wiggin arriving at Battle School. Or Alex Rogan, clutching his Star League uniform, staring wide-eyed at a hangar full of Gunstars.”

like waaaaait, slow down here buddy break it down for me

actually also... been a long time but isn't ender like totally not into the whole battle school thing? like it's a fucking nightmare? what is he going for here?

i put ready player one into the paper recycling rather than give it to the thrift store because i didn't want anyone else to have to have it

there weren't any a-wings at the battle of yavin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI

I'm normally extremely cynical when it comes to puff pieces about developers with a fatal disease, but then I realized this was the team that made Quadropus Rampage, which I loved. Not at all into these Minecraft-style games, unfortunately.
http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/3/8863381/inspiring-story-of-crashlands

watch not read, but worth revisiting:
http://criticalpathproject.com/

http://media.kotaku.foxtrot.future.net.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2015/07/dizzeemaskhome580.jpg

The Untold Story of PlayStation Home, Sony's Most Successful Disaster

very interesting. had no idea Home was successful on any level!

turns out some people just can't resist the opportunity to spend good money on virtual santa suits and yachts i guess

looks like i imagine the second life might if you removed all the horrifying furry cybersex

Article on pixel art to HD remakes, partially on how bad the recent FFV release on PC turned out.
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20150929/254782/Doing_an_HD_Remake_the_Right_Way.php

I can relate to that guy's perfectionist choices on upscaling

http://shmuplations.com/streetsofrage2/

Whole site is a goldmine tbh.

http://shmuplations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/sor03.jpg

This interview is an in-depth look at the making of Streets of Rage 2 (Bare Knuckle II in Japan) with its designer Ayano Koshiro. Although a veteran of game design whose work has graced classics like Actraiser, Lunar, and Ys, in the West she is still largely unknown except as the sister of famous composer Yuzo Koshiro. In any event, this candid interview serves as an excellent introduction to her own significant contribution to gaming.

This interview appeared on Ancient’s blog as a celebration of the recent 3DS port of Streets of Rage 2. They also shared the planning docs for the game, including much of Ayano Koshiro’s original concept art. I’ve translated a selection of these for your enjoyment here!

very cool, thanks!

this article is totally great - love the all the in-the-trench anecdotes!

http://kotaku.com/the-natural-the-trouble-portraying-blackness-in-video-1736504384

good read

Although Western fans may mourn the loss, McCarthy doesn’t share their despondency. “Honestly, I am not so sure that any threat to yet another shouting, shooting game full of American grunts saving democracy from the wiles of dark-skinned terrorists is any great loss to the art,” he said.

What is he talking about?

Looking at his company's website it all makes sense.

http://www.cybird.co.jp/en/

The guy you fall in love will be a selfish wife candidate or an extreme sadistic tutor